Friday 25 September 2009

Butterfly reviews...the story so far...


Xavier Renauld's photographs of Oscar Lhermitte's X Days Project

Ever the professional, apart from openly admitting a dislike of a work, I thought I'd collect the various moneyed words together for you to see the difference between myself, and the world-weary cynics of Fleet Street. Ummm, apparently I'm the cynic because the majority of the scribblers who made it to The Armadillo by the Bay © * quite enjoyed WNO's Madam Butterfly.

Rian Evans of The Guardian saw Amanda Roocroft as graceful and impassioned and from a seat better than mine she pointed out Claire Bradshaw's DIY skills in fixing a looking glass. Writing for The Times, Hilary Finch sees Roocroft as being convincingly child-like in the role, and wise beyond Butterfly’s 15 years with Bradshaw delivering a formidable Suzuki. Russell Thomas is a resonant and ringing-voiced Yankee — the real thing, while Neal Davies delivers a a nicely detailed and beautifully sung Sharpless. Gavin Allen in the South Wales Echo, but taken from Wales Online, saw a stunning performance by American tenor Russell Thomas as bad boy Pinkerton opposite Roocroft's convincingly vulnerable Butterfly. All of the reviewers, so far, have lavished praise on Carlo Rizzi's conducting and have fallen suitably in love with the sets.

Why not make your own mind up? There are three more performances at the WMC before the show hits the road.

* I'm willing to sell this for £4.8 million.

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